KR101470762B1 - Apparatus and method for location tracking - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device for tracking a location, comprising: a communication unit to receive a first signal from at least one external access point; a moving information acquiring unit to acquire pedestrian navigation information of a first mobile object based on pedestrian navigation; and a location determining unit to determine proximity information for the external access point based on receiving intensity of the first signal, and to determine a location of the first mobile object based on the proximity information and the pedestrian navigation information of the first mobile object.

Description

[0001] APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR LOCATION TRACKING [0002]

And more particularly to an apparatus and a method for tracking a position of a moving object using an access point based communication network and a walking navigation method.

The location information of the rescue personnel during the rescue activities in the field such as fire and collapse is essential information for efficient rescue operation and safety of rescue personnel.

A study has also been published that 58.4% of deaths of rescue personnel are accidental or preventable damages if location information is provided.

In order to increase the importance of rescue activities and reduce casualties, we are studying indoor / outdoor location tracking technology of rescue personnel.

The position of the rescue personnel at the accident site is measured using the change in the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI). However, it is not easy to provide stable distance measurement due to the characteristics of RSSI, which is greatly influenced by the antenna direction and attitude,

Accordingly, there is a need for a device that provides useful location tracking information in situations where multiple rescue personnel are active.

According to one aspect, there is provided a communication system comprising: a communication unit for receiving a first signal from at least one external access point; A movement information obtaining unit that obtains walking information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation; And a position determiner for determining proximity information to the external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal and determining a position of the first mobile body based on the proximity information and the walking navigation information of the first mobile body Is provided.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit may determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit, and determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information for the at least one access point, The second position corrected position can be estimated.

According to another embodiment, the position determination unit may determine that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point based on the reception strength of the first signal.

According to another embodiment, when it is determined that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point, the initial condition of the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit is corrected can do.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit may estimate at least one of the movement distance and the azimuth angle change based on the stride between the steps detected by the first mobile unit.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the position determiner may sense at least one of an acceleration and an angular velocity of the first moving object to detect whether the moving object is moving.

According to an embodiment, the position determination unit may correct the stride of the first mobile unit by performing the zero speed correction in a stance phase in a static state.

According to another embodiment, the position determiner may apply a SIR (Sampling Importance Resampling) particle filter.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a navigation apparatus comprising: a movement information obtaining unit that obtains walking information of a first mobile unit based on a walking navigation; A communication unit for receiving a first signal from at least one external access point and transmitting the walking navigation information and the information about the first signal to a monitoring equipment; And a controller for receiving the walking navigation information and the information on the first signal from the communication unit to determine proximity information to the external access point based on reception intensity of the first signal, And a monitoring device for determining the position of the first mobile body based on the walking navigation information of the first mobile body.

According to another aspect, there is provided a communication method, comprising: receiving a first signal from at least one external access point; Obtaining the walking navigation information of the first mobile body based on the walking information acquisition unit walking navigation; And a position determination unit determining proximity information to the external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal and determining the position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information and the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit There is provided a method for tracking a location including a step.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit may determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit, and determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information for the at least one access point, The second position corrected position can be estimated.

According to another embodiment, the position determination unit may determine that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point based on the reception strength of the first signal.

According to another embodiment, when it is determined that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point, the initial condition of the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit is corrected can do.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit may estimate at least one of the movement distance and the azimuth angle change based on the stride between the steps detected by the first mobile unit.

According to one aspect, the moving information obtaining unit obtains the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation; The communication unit receiving the first signal from at least one external access point and transmitting the walking navigation information and the information about the first signal to the monitoring equipment; And the monitoring device receives the walking navigation information and the information on the first signal from the communication unit, determines proximity information to the external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal, And determining the position of the first mobile body based on the walking navigation information of the first mobile body.

According to another aspect, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for performing the above method is recorded.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a position tracking apparatus according to an embodiment.
2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a location tracking method according to an exemplary embodiment.
3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a position tracking system according to an embodiment.
4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a location tracking method according to another embodiment.
5 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a structure for configuring navigation information necessary for position tracking from proximity information on an access point and walking navigation information, according to an embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the tracking results of a plurality of moving objects, according to an embodiment.
7 is an exemplary diagram illustrating integrated location tracking performance due to the combined use of an access point and a walking navigation, in accordance with one embodiment.

In the following, some embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it is not limited or limited by these embodiments. Like reference symbols in the drawings denote like elements.

Although the terms used in the following description have selected the general terms that are widely used in the present invention while considering the functions of the present invention, they may vary depending on the intention or custom of the artisan, the emergence of new technology, and the like.

Also, in certain cases, there may be terms chosen arbitrarily by the applicant for the sake of understanding and / or convenience of explanation, and in this case the meaning of the detailed description in the corresponding description section. Therefore, the term used in the following description should be understood based on the meaning of the term, not the name of a simple term, and the contents throughout the specification.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a position tracking apparatus according to an embodiment.

The location tracking apparatus 100 may include a communication unit 110, a movement information acquisition unit 120, and a position determination unit 130.

The communication unit 110 may receive the first signal from at least one external access point. The first signal may include information indicating that the first mobile is proximate to an external access point. In yet another embodiment, the first signal may be, for example, a beacon signal or an advertisement signal including an identification of the access point. As will be described in more detail below, the position determination unit 130 may determine whether the first mobile unit is close to the specific access point based on the intensity of the first signal. The communication unit 110 can perform communication with an external access point by, for example, the IEEE802.11 method, but a person skilled in the art can easily understand that there is no limitation on the communication method.

The movement information obtaining unit 120 can obtain the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation method. Pedesrian Dead Reckoning calculates the moving distance of the first moving object to estimate the position of the first moving object. The step width of the first mobile can be used when calculating the travel distance. Here, the position tracking device 100 can be attached to the first moving body and moved together. Accordingly, the movement information acquired by the movement information acquisition unit 120 may be the same as the movement information of the first mobile unit.

According to one embodiment, the first mobile may be a rescue agent at a construction site, and may be a robot that saves lives. The position tracking apparatus 100 can grasp the position of the first mobile body and easily grasp the position of the patient in the structure field.

The movement information acquiring unit 120 may include at least one of a linear accelerometer, a gyroscope, and a geomagnetic sensor capable of acquiring movement information of the first mobile object.

The position determination unit 130 may determine proximity information for an external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal. For example, the position determination unit 130 can determine that the first mobile unit is close to a specific access point when the reception strength of the first signal exceeds a preset threshold value. The position determination unit 130 can determine which access point the first mobile unit has approached based on the identifier of the access point included in the first signal. For example, it is assumed that the communication unit 110 receives the first signal that the access point identifier is determined as the first access point. The position determination unit 130 may determine whether the strength of the received first signal, for example RSSI, exceeds a preset threshold value. When the intensity of the first signal exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the position determination unit 130 can confirm the access point identifier of the first signal. The position determination unit 30 may determine that the first mobile unit is close to the first access point based on the result of the check.

In another embodiment, the position determination unit 130 may receive a signal from at least one external access point. For example, if the position determination unit 130 receives a signal having a reception strength of 10 from the first access point and a signal having a reception strength of 7 from the second access point, the position determination unit 130 determines that the second It can be determined that the first mobile body exists at a position closer to the first access point than the access point. That is, the position determination unit 130 may determine the position of the first mobile unit based on the signal strength between the plurality of received signals, instead of comparing the threshold with a preset threshold value.

In addition, the position determination unit 130 can determine the position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information and the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit.

According to one embodiment, the walking navigation can estimate the travel distance by estimating the stride between the detected steps in the first mobile body. Also, the position of the first mobile can be tracked by estimating the change of the azimuth angle between the mobile distances.

According to another embodiment, the inertial sensor attached to the first moving body can measure acceleration or angular velocity. Also, the inertial sensor can recognize the step of the first moving object by using the acceleration or angular velocity measurement value.

The inertial sensor can sense a stance phase that can assume a static state. In the stance phase, the zero speed correction is performed to estimate the stride at each walk.

According to one embodiment, the initial azimuth angle depends on the geomagnetism sensor value, and the position determination unit 130 can estimate the azimuth change during the movement using the inertial sensor measurement value.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit 130 can determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation of the first mobile unit. In addition, the position determination unit 130 can determine the second position in which the first position is corrected based on the proximity information of at least one access point.

According to another embodiment, the position determination unit 130 can determine that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point based on the reception strength of the first signal. For example, at the first time, it can be said that the reception strength of the first signal from the first access point is 10. When the reception strength of the first signal from the first access point is 4 at the second time, the position determination unit 130 can determine that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point.

In addition, when it is determined that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point, the initial condition of the walking navigation information for the first mobile unit can be corrected corresponding to the second access point. That is, when the first mobile unit moves based on the second access point, the position determination unit 130 can determine the position of the first mobile unit based on the second access point.

At this time, when the first mobile unit moves at the second access point by adding the initial condition of the walking navigation information to the first mobile unit, the moving distance information can be reflected. When the first mobile unit moves on the basis of the second access point, the position determination unit 130 determines whether or not the second access point is located on the basis of the walking navigation, The distance traveled at the point can be determined.

According to another embodiment, the position determination unit 130 may estimate at least one of the movement distance and the azimuth change based on the stride between the steps detected in the first mobile unit.

In addition, the position determination unit 130 may sense at least one of the acceleration and the angular velocity of the first moving object to detect whether the moving object is moving. In the stance phase in the static state, the stiffness correction can be performed to correct the stride of the first mobile.

The position determiner 130 may apply a SIR (Sampling Importance Resampling) particle filter.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a location tracking method according to an exemplary embodiment.

Step 210 is the step where the location tracking device 100 receives the first signal from at least one external access point.

Step 220 is a step in which the movement information obtaining unit 120 obtains the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation method.

Step 230 is a step in which the position determination unit 130 determines the position of the first mobile unit. And may determine proximity information to an external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal. The position determination unit 130 may determine the position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information and the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit.

According to one embodiment, the position determination unit 130 can determine the first position of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation of the first mobile unit. In addition, it is possible to estimate the second position in which the first position is corrected based on the proximity information for the at least one access point.

Further, the position determination unit 130 can determine that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point based on the reception strength of the first signal. If it is determined that the first mobile unit has moved from the first access point to the second access point, the initial condition of the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit can be corrected corresponding to the second access point.

The position determination unit 130 may estimate at least one of the movement distance and the azimuth angle change based on the difference between the strides detected by the first mobile unit.

3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a position tracking system according to an embodiment.

According to one embodiment, the location tracking system 300 may include a communication unit 310 and a movement information acquisition unit 320. [

According to one embodiment, the movement information obtaining unit 320 can obtain the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation method.

The movement information obtaining unit 320 may include an inertial sensor, a communication network module, and a processor mounted on the first mobile unit. The communication network module may correspond to Wi-Fi.

According to one embodiment, the location tracking system 300 may be operated where there is no infrastructure, such as a fixed access point or digital map for first mobile location tracking.

According to one embodiment, the first mobile unit can carry a plurality of access points, enter the field, and set up access points at the entry point and the weak area for communication. The position of the installed access point is fixed to the first moving body position at the time of installation.

In addition, the location of the installed access point is transmitted to the monitoring device 330, which is an external command post, and is then shared by the moving object entering the corresponding site.

According to an embodiment, the second mobile body entering after the first mobile body which is first suppressed on the field can perform the navigation using the access point provided by the first mobile body. When the second mobile unit advances to a path not advancing to a path not passing through the first mobile unit, the access point can be additionally provided according to the communication quality.

The communication unit 310 may receive the first signal from at least one external access point. Also, the communication unit 310 may transmit the walking navigation information and the information about the first signal to the monitoring equipment.

The monitoring device 330 may receive walking navigation information and information on the first signal from the communication unit 310. And may determine proximity information to the external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal. Based on the determined proximity information and the walking navigation of the first mobile unit, the monitoring device 330 can determine the position of the first mobile unit.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a location tracking method according to another embodiment.

Step 410 is a step in which the movement information obtaining unit 320 obtains the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation method.

Step 420 is a step in which the communication unit 310 receives the first signal from at least one external access point and transmits information about the walking navigation information and the first signal to the monitoring equipment.

Step 430 is the step of the monitoring device 330 determining the position of the first mobile. The monitoring device 330 may receive walking navigation information and information on the first signal from the communication unit 310. And may determine proximity information to the external access point based on the reception strength of the first signal.

The position determination unit may determine the position of the first mobile unit based on the determined proximity information and the gait of the first mobile unit.

5 is an exemplary diagram illustrating a structure for configuring navigation information necessary for position tracking from proximity information on an access point and walking navigation information, according to an embodiment.

According to one embodiment, because the Wi-Fi does not provide distance measurement information directly, the distance can be measured using a change in the RSSI of the received signal strength indicator (or system) in the location tracking device (or system).

Distance measurement using RSSI may not be able to obtain reliable distance measurement in an indoor environment where a fingerprint database or an attenuation model is used but is not ready in advance and has various obstacles.

According to another embodiment, the measured RSSI while varying the distance of the access point may be inversely proportional to the distance. In addition, the RSSI dispersion can increase in proportion to the distance.

According to one embodiment, the walking navigation can be expressed as a nonlinear model as shown in equation (1).

here,

According to another embodiment, in the case of the gait navigation, if an accurate initial value is not provided, the filter behavior can be made unstable due to an increase in linearization error or the like when an extended Kalman filter or the like is applied.

According to an embodiment, navigation information necessary for tracking a location can be configured from proximity information on an access point and walking navigation information.

The walking navigation information may include a step increase or decrease of the moving object depending on the position. Walking navigation information can be passed to the integration filter.

According to one embodiment, the aggregated filter may receive walking navigation information, access point proximity / identification information, and content of the access point database. The database of the access point may be for the location information of each access point.

The navigation information can be obtained by reflecting the information and the initial value transmitted from the integration filter. The initial value may include an initial position or an initial azimuth angle.

According to another embodiment, the walking navigation in the location tracking system (system) may have a nonlinear system model, and the error of the proximity information using RSSI may not have a white Gaussian distribution. In order to overcome this problem, a particle filter of SIR (Sampling Importance Resampling) method can be applied.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the tracking results of a plurality of moving objects, according to an embodiment.

Fig. 6 shows the estimation of the positions of three moving objects by the walking navigation alone. For relative comparisons, the initial position coincided with a specific point.

In FIG. 6, although the geomagnetic sensor is used for the initial azimuth angle, it can be confirmed that an offset exists due to the error of each sensor. It is also observed that azimuth drift occurs over time and azimuth error due to erroneous step recognition occurs.

The offset between the trajectories of the moving objects caused by these results can make it difficult to operate the moving object position tracking system.

7 is an exemplary diagram illustrating integrated location tracking performance due to the combined use of an access point and a walking navigation, in accordance with one embodiment.

710 is an exemplary view showing that the first mobile unit initially enters and two access points are installed;

720 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a second mobile unit enters and performs position tracking using a first access point and a second access point, and a third access point and a fourth access point are installed by entering deeper than the entry point of the first mobile unit to be.

In FIG. 720, it can be confirmed that the trajectory and the offset of the first moving object are estimated and removed using the first access point and the second access point. In addition, it can be seen that there is no increase in the error in repetitive trajectory movement by compensating the drift using the third access point and the fourth access point, which are additionally installed.

730 is an exemplary view showing a result of tracking the position of the third mobile unit using the installed first to fourth access points. The azimuth angle of the first moving object and the azimuth angle of the building may coincide with each other.

In Figure 730, it can be seen that the third mobile unit performs navigation using both the first access point and the fourth access point. Also, it can be confirmed that the position information is estimated without offset and drift with respect to other moving object trajectories.

In addition, it can be confirmed that even if the first mobile unit and the second mobile unit deviate from the trajectory passed and enter the room 2, they provide stable position tracking results.

740 is an exemplary view showing a location where the first access point and the fourth access point are installed;

The apparatus described above may be implemented as a hardware component, a software component, and / or a combination of hardware components and software components. For example, the apparatus and components described in the embodiments may be implemented within a computer system, such as, for example, a processor, a controller, an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a digital signal processor, a microcomputer, a field programmable array (FPA) A programmable logic unit (PLU), a microprocessor, or any other device capable of executing and responding to instructions.

The processing device may execute an operating system (OS) and one or more software applications running on the operating system. The processing device may also access, store, manipulate, process, and generate data in response to execution of the software.

For ease of understanding, the processing apparatus may be described as being used singly, but those skilled in the art will recognize that the processing apparatus may have a plurality of processing elements and / As shown in FIG. For example, the processing unit may comprise a plurality of processors or one processor and one controller. Other processing configurations are also possible, such as a parallel processor.

The software may include a computer program, code, instructions, or a combination of one or more of the foregoing, and may be configured to configure the processing device to operate as desired or to process it collectively or collectively Device can be commanded.

The software and / or data may be in the form of any type of machine, component, physical device, virtual equipment, computer storage media, or device , Or may be permanently or temporarily embodied in a transmitted signal wave. The software may be distributed over a networked computer system and stored or executed in a distributed manner. The software and data may be stored on one or more computer readable recording media.

The method according to an embodiment may be implemented in the form of a program command that can be executed through various computer means and recorded in a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium may include program instructions, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. The program instructions to be recorded on the medium may be those specially designed and configured for the embodiments or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software.

Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include magnetic media such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, optical media such as CD ROM, DVD, and the like such as a floppy disk Magneto-optical media, and hardware devices specifically configured to store and execute program instructions such as ROM, RAM, flash memory, and the like.

Examples of program instructions include machine language code such as those produced by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that can be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like.

The hardware devices described above may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the embodiments, and vice versa.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments. For example, it is to be understood that the techniques described may be performed in a different order than the described methods, and / or that components of the described systems, structures, devices, circuits, Lt; / RTI > or equivalents, even if it is replaced or replaced.

Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be determined by the equivalents of the claims, as well as the claims.

Claims (16)

A movement information obtaining unit that obtains walking information of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation;
When receiving the first signal from a first external access point installed at an arbitrary point while being carried by the first mobile unit, transmitting the reception strength information of the first signal and the walking navigation information to the monitoring equipment ; And
Determining proximity information for the first external access point based on the reception strength obtained from the reception strength information of the first signal when receiving the reception strength information of the first signal and the walking navigation information from the communication unit, A position determining unit for determining a current position of the first mobile unit based on the proximity information and the walking navigation information,
Lt; / RTI >
The position determining unit may determine,
Wherein the first external access point is moved by the first mobile body to move to a position at the arbitrary point as an initial position of the first mobile body, and based on the initial position, the proximity information, and the walking navigation information Determines the current position of the first mobile body,
If it is determined that the second external access point installed at a different location from the first external access point is closer to the first external access point than the first external access point based on the proximity information, Lt; RTI ID = 0.0 > offset < / RTI >
Location tracking device. The method according to claim 1,
The position determining unit may determine,
Determining a first position, which is a relative position of the first mobile unit, from the initial position of the first mobile unit based on the walking navigation information of the first mobile unit, and based on the proximity information for the first external access point Estimates a second position corrected for the first position, and determines the estimated second position as the current position of the first moving body. delete delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the movement information obtaining unit comprises:
And estimates at least one of the movement distance and the azimuth change based on the stride between the steps detected by the first mobile unit. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the movement information obtaining unit comprises:
Wherein at least one of an acceleration and an angular velocity of the first moving object is measured to detect whether the moving object is moving. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the movement information obtaining unit comprises:
And correcting the stride of the first mobile body by performing the zero speed correction in a stance phase in a static state. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the movement information obtaining unit comprises:
A position tracking device applying a SIR (Sampling Importance Resampling) particle filter. delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete

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